Ah…with any luck, this chapter will be shorter. Sorry it took so long to update time, but I was flooded with homework (…three guesses as to which subject…) and had to survive a weekend with my insane friends playing the 'cello. Oh, and get my brace fixed.

Okey-doke, how many people have been wondering what happened to a certain Adept? Even Kraden's already been mentioned in the fic. Please, don't bombard me with accusations for screwing up the GS character relationships, because I warned you in chapter one this was going to be weird. Remember, this is set in an alternate universe – where anything could happen…

I'm really evil, aren't I?

And finally, a mesa (may-sa) is a flat-topped mountain.


Shade

Fog lolled on the deck, too lazy to dissipate itself into the clear sky above. When Mia stepped onto the deck she shuddered from the sudden chill that enveloped her, her mind flashing through her dream again in less than a second: the hungry cold biting at her flesh, the knowledge of her uselessness, the path she was destined to take. Clasping her hands together, Mia yanked the strands of her sense back into place, making the cloth of her consciousness whole again. It was a long time ago, and he's not coming back. Mariner promised.

"Oh! Mia, good morning!"

Startled by the voice that unexpectedly emerged from the nearly opaque mist, she span around rapidly, reaching for her staff blindly in the fog. Her hand connected with something's arm, and she bit back a frightened shriek, instead breathing shakily as she recognised the material. Well, she had made clothes from it not that long ago. Any half-decent Angelical woman knew how to sew; sometimes it became a necessity to stitch wounds up with thread or gut.

Isaac's concerned face faded into view when she turned round, calmly this time, sighing with relief. "I didn't realise I was that frightening," he commented, grinning. "Heh, looks like I'll have to work on not being scary in fog. Although," he added as he looked around at their indiscernible surroundings, trying to pierce the thick, almost miasmic pale grey substance with his bright eyes, "this fog's kinda scary in itself…" For a soon-vanishing second, he thought he could see a patch of dark blue somewhere out in the mist-encrusted sea. Frowning, he filed the vanishing phenomenon neatly into an orderly section of his mind and returned his attention to the Mercury girl.

"Yes…you're right about that," she replied, trying not to let his cheer drop her defences. The minute she let anything slip or dropped her guard by accident, he was always immediately onto her, trying to get more information out of her about this or that. Quite how he was always able to disguise his nosiness with that innocent, docile charm was beyond her. "I had a strange dream last night about a cold place, so I just reacted without thinking." Adopting silence, she took several deep breaths to prevent further shuddering as another wave of fog noiselessly billowed over the bows and floated through the humid air towards them. In the midst of the thick vapour, the quick glance she made up at the thoughtful-looking Isaac went unnoticed.

"I…had a strange dream as well," Isaac replied, his expression changing from happy and meek to honest and sensible. "Made me think a lot when I woke up. Realised how lucky it was that he found Sheba. Otherwise…" He studied the fog intently for a few moments before shaking his head. "Let's just say…he'd be…even worse."

Pretending she understood whatever he was saying was probably safer than asking him outright and being directly stared at with such intense blueness she'd go dizzy. Unsure of what he was really going on about, Mia adjusted the ribbon in her ponytail, smiled kindly without thinking, and smoothly changed the puzzling subject. "Dreams are strange things. I don't know how this fog's able to be as cold as the snowdrift I dreamed of…and it's at least as thick, too. I'll go and get Ivan to fix up those lightning jars of his before we can't see anything."

Isaac seemed to try lighting up the deck with his cheerful smile, taking advantage of Felix's absence to be compliant. "Sure, that's a good idea. I'll be able to see you properly then!" Checking the clean yellow knot on his left shoulder, he strolled off whistling along the deck towards the helm, taking his everlasting sunshine with him. Mia watched him for a moment before going back inside to wake Ivan up, trying to ignore that the way he'd said those words sounded different.

By the time the Jupiter Adept had noticed the fog and was muttering darkly about getting wet and shrinking, Ivan was already concentrating his psynergy to a fine point and expertly filled several well-stoppered bottles and jars with bright, crackly fragments of lightning. Even when the purple haze of his powers dispersed into the air, the natural glow from the static electricity in his hands added quiet maturity to his face; it was enough for his apparent childish superstition about shrinking to be forgotten by his two onlookers. Standing up from his crouch, he held out a container of lightning in each hand. "Mia, try not to break it this time," he warned the healer when she took hers. "Trying to gather up the lightning afterwards was difficult."

"Okay!"

"Isaac, I didn't know you were called Mia." Methodically picking up the coloured, blown glass jars and bottles and sliding them into an alcove set into the mast, Ivan dusted snapping static and a breath of lilac dust off his hands as he turned back round to face the two Adepts. "I made the lightning more concentrated this time to get better light, so if it gets free there could be problems. So be careful with those." He selected a bottle of lightning for himself and held it up, swilling the dancing substance like a wine connoisseur checks their wineglass. Apparent satisfaction painted itself onto his face when a rogue spark made the glass ring, the starry sound resounding around the ship. Part of the bright flash that emerged from the glass lodged itself in his purple eyes. "That should get Mariner up."

While the three of them chattered and went around the ship hanging the lightning containers up in useful places, they managed to banish some of the all-consuming fog's effects. Up ahead, the twin red rocks came into view surrounded by even deeper mist, the swirls of inky-black seawater twirling daintily around them and occasionally splashing large droplets onto the rocks themselves. Catching sight of the way the water churned almost angrily once it was past the rock duo, Mia swallowed apprehensively. She hoped that Mariner knew what he was doing.

Arms stretched above his head, Isaac yawned. "I'm awake properly now, which is more than can be said for the cats." The illuminating light glinted on his teeth when he smiled. "I'll be able to talk properly, too. Hey, Ivan, did you have any strange dreams last night?"

"Not really," Ivan replied carefully, remembering other far stranger dreams he'd had before. That one with the destroyed buildings was probably the strangest. A mental image of white, limestone-covered pillars collapsed at odd angles, swarmed by invasive, unknown plant growth and heavily disfigured by aeons of time, surrounded by unfamiliar terrain, blew in on the wind that often gusted through his visions. Visions…that was why he was Seer. "Why?"

"'Cos me and Mia both had strange dreams," Isaac promptly replied before seeing Mia's face. It was the one she'd used shortly before almost putting her foot through the deck a couple of weeks back. "Well, a lot of snow and a cold place are kinda strange, aren't they?"

"It wasn't that strange," Mia retorted huffily, inwardly feeling the numbness induced by her frozen prison returning, her mind starting to freeze, the way she'd been mysteriously found in the drift and taken from it. How did Mariner know I was there? she thought, not noticing Ivan's sceptical expression or the way he lifted one of his small hands up, pointing two fingers at her.

"Mia, you still can't lie," the Jupiter Adept said when she finally did notice and tensed her shoulders. "Don't glare at me like that – you're the one who had the dream in the first place!" he pointed out when she glared at him and curled her fingers tightly around her lightning jar. "And if you throw that thing, you can catch the lightning later."

Her glare intensified; Isaac dropped his almost naïve persona and hurriedly got out of the way before the argument could fully get under way. Listening to the two voices shouting an amalgamation of well-thought-out points and general blatant insults at each other, the Venus Adept held up his little bottle of lightning and ambled through the heavy swathes of woollen fog towards the other end of the ship. However, as the argument came to an abrupt stop (following Mariner bellowing something crossly at the two Seekers) Isaac could still hear the sound of something besides seawater lapping at the ship's hull. It was faint and barely audible, but he thought he could hear someone's muffled crying; quietly, he crept closer towards the stern of the ship, listening for voices.

He was startled out of his position almost immediately by Felix's voice. "Isaac, stop trying to hide."

Chastised, he turned the corner and looked apologetic. "Sorry." He combed his fingers through his birds' nest hair, nodding awkwardly in the direction of his two friends. "Hey, are you okay, Sheba? What happened?"

"I've been failing to get that out of her for the last ten minutes," Felix replied sadly, softly looking down at Sheba. "I got up half an hour ago and she followed me, and then…" He shook his head. "She won't let go, and won't tell me why." Gently placing a hand on the back of his sister's head, he held Sheba closer to let her concerned tears be absorbed by his tunic; he didn't want to risk thinking of what would happen if the others knew she'd been crying. Although it would doubtlessly be nothing like the acidic, fake, concern other people had looked at the girl with back in the Venus sector, nonetheless it would be discomforting. For him, if not for anyone else. Just the sharp, vicious memory of it made him return to brambles for defending himself, his sister and his friend.

Somewhere out in the fog, the strange blue patch re-emerged and stared at the winged ship as it smoothly sliced through the dark water towards the pair of rocks.

Isaac watched his friends, Sheba still firmly clinging to her brother, distractedly toying with his scarf to pass the time. Seconds before vanishing into his own imaginary world he yanked his mind back into reality, blinking hard several times to dispel any risk of losing his concentration. It's just 'cos normally I've got to ignore it. But I can't this time, in the middle of this fog, 'cos we don't know why Sheba's crying. Spokes of thought clicked neatly into place with each other while he glossed through and over his options. I'll just stay here for the time being.

"You're not going to say what's wrong," Felix stated, quietly breaking through the delicate glass of silence. The broken shards were still tinking against the floor when he calmly pulled Sheba's arms away from him and held them at her sides; she looked up at him through her wet eyelashes, the wet curtain of tears in her eyes just held back. "So can you stop making us worry?"

Abruptly, she tore away from him and disappeared past Isaac, heading for the door to the lower decks. The sound of the decoratively-carved door swinging open and shut echoed hollowly through the fog, rebounding off the ancient, muddy-red rocks and the whirling water to shoot right back at the ship. While the sound of conversation restarted at the other end of the ship, neither of the two Venus Adepts moved from where they stood, both of them still gazing after Sheba. Even the bottled lightning seemed as subdued as them, no longer zinging around the glass but instead quietly fizzing, collected into a starlight-esque glow in the middle of the bottle, unusually timid and quiet for something as alive as lightning.

"I must be such a crap brother." Felix wouldn't meet his friend's eyes.

Isaac found a corner of his scarf and edged it towards his mouth. "Where's proof for that?" he mumbled around the yellow mouthful, looking up into the fog that now cocooned the entire ship in its web of finely-spun clouds. Too late he noticed the stalagmites threatening to burst out from beneath Felix's skin, and hurriedly took a step back to avoid being speared by his friend's reaction. He knew the coldness in that glance only too well after his dream.

"Right here." Felix tapped his right temple, dark eyes never leaving Isaac's face. "If that's not proof, then what is?"

"Felix, you weren't even two when that happened," Isaac replied, reaching for his common sense while still chewing the scarf. "It wasn't your fault that all of that happened. You're just looking at negatives again," he added, risking coming closer. The ship's smooth, almost noiseless movement through the enshrouded sea made more thick fog drift between the two Adepts; Isaac swallowed nervously and took another step forwards. "What's so great about negative stuff anyway?"

"Shut up, Isaac. A pessimist is never disappointed, and most of the time we end up with bad things happening to us." The dark brown silhouette turned away from Isaac, his mind occupied with the past. A reel of monochrome memories played in his head, with only his inner eyes seeing the images rapidly click past, most of them harsh and scarring. "How you can stand there and not react to what happens around you is just…sometimes it seriously pisses me off. And get rid of that bloody scarf!"

The material almost ripped when Isaac yanked it from his mouth and stuffed both of his hands behind his back. He dropped his pretence, letting his other nature emerge from its blue prison inside his eyes, sending ripples across the surface of his irises; inside he was saddened at having to use the second mentality. "It's not like you're responsible for everything that happens to her. I know you hate that you can't always help her – hell, I don't like it – but that doesn't mean you have to beat yourself up about it. Right?"

Silence.

Awkward again, Isaac scratched his head for ideas and held up the lightning bottle to see if he could read Felix's reaction. "I can understand your reasons, but it's still kinda weird to want to get hurt for something someone else did. It was bad enough trying to get you out of that slump when we were little…"

"Shut up and get lost."

Isaac did so.


Mariner slung the covered picture frame onto his back and exited the main ship again. He already knew what sort of things the others would be doing – breathing the hauntingly pure air, looking around in stunned fascination at the columns lining the way to the dock – and it should hopefully be enough to prevent Mia seeing the frame. Touching his fingers to the hilt of his sword, he tried not to notice the renewed glittering sheen the dull aquamarines had acquired; it only made him remember more about what had happened, and –

His vision was cloudy despite the skyscape's clearness, and a needle of pain shot up into his head. The nearer I get…the worse it becomes. I should have remembered. This time it was a cluster of cactus spines piercing through his skull and impaling his mind. He twitched from the dull pain, inwardly trying to push away the sudden nausea attempting to suffocate him. So, even thinking about memories hurt him now. It was probably because of the man in the picture frame; he'd been shooting murky intent and twisting shadows towards Mariner ever since he'd told the others they had other things to take care of before returning to Angara. At least once he's released he won't be able to get at us until he completes his task. By then… Swallowing, Mariner ran his fingers over the scarlet fabric, familiarising himself with the knot again so he'd be able to undo it once…

Blood. There was blood on his fingers. Momentarily freezing, he stared at his wrist and mentally cursed. Of course. He should have known that. He watched for several long moments at the material, now coated with his blood, as it tightened itself even further around his wrist and the edges slit into his skin.

Dear me, Mariner…it appears you still haven't been able to fully suppress my powers close to your precious home. Silken tones that were only received by his mind chuckled. You are still Mariner, correct? I can never be certain for how long you keep one name without arousing suspicions.

He responded in turn. I hardly see how it's anything to do with you. You're the one concerned with escaping from the seal, not me. Why don't you just leave my business out of yours – unless you want me to destroy the picture right here and be done with you? Grim satisfaction was sinking into him; the threat of destroying the picture was always enough to silence the suave voice that emanated from the frame when he was at home.

As the six Adepts made their way away from the dock and up towards the surface of the island, he strayed to the back of the line to avoid anyone noticing him casting healing psynergy on his wrist to stop the bleeding. He didn't want blood loss to cruelly trick him into dropping his guard when he was near the spring; even from here, almost a mile from the accursed 'holy' water, he could hear its demanding call invisibly bubbling through the perfectly-still air towards him. He couldn't let it win him over when the effects of it had only recently worn off, and he had to be careful that the others weren't seduced by the rich royal-blue waters. Mia, pure Imilian, wouldn't survive Lemurian spring water, and it would probably have other adverse effects on the two Jupiter children. He'd already made the two Venus boys wear gloves, which would keep them safe for a while…for long enough…

Pearly white pillars patched with stormy grey lichens rose up from the refreshing greenery, radiating grandeur frighteningly akin to that of the Mars Clan's. As Mariner glanced down at the worn rocks that were carved into pathways and stairs, he forced the distant memories' violence further back into the deeper recesses of his mind. He glanced up at the other five Adepts, all clambering the stairs with youthful agility, and felt a smile almost unnoticeably pulling at one side of his mouth. How long had it been since children that young had played in the streets, happy and able to bring happiness to the elder Lemurians?

Another violent stab of memory pain attacked him, and he almost lost his balance on the stairs.

Higher up, Sheba had already reached the top of the cliff-face stairs and was taking in her surroundings. She felt thousands of tiny knots of fear and intrigue tighten inside her as she saw more and more of the built-up mesa. The blocky buildings had fallen into complete disrepair, so fragments of ancient brick occasionally tumbled from their age-old positions and smashed, like droplets of rainwater, into the floor. Unknown plants grew in profusion – rich, earthy green leaves, strands of strange ivy, pale greeny-blue lilies – but it looked like they were conquering the land for themselves. Even when she concentrated on listening, there weren't any sounds of life. The whole place…trapped inside a sea of fog, sheared off from the outside world…all of it was empty.

A dead city?

Nothing. There was nothing left of the society…

"You okay?" Isaac tapped her gently on the shoulder. "You didn't look so great earlier…you weren't angry with us, were you?" He was relieved to see her look up at him, smiling and shaking her head mutely. "Good. Now Felix can stop being pessimistic and enjoy himself for once. Kinda strange place, isn't it?" He took a few steps closer to the bluish-grey buildings, head turning this way and that to cast happy rays across the fading stones. "But…where is everyone?"

"Try the cemetery sometime," Felix muttered, glancing at the neat rows of eroding, pink-veined marble headstones a little distance from the main town. "This place is dead." By the headstones, he noticed fluttering butterflies gleaming in the weak light of the pale topaz sun. One of the insects, an intricate gold and red tracery spilling over its wings, settled on the welcoming petals of a lily and only left once completely dusted with the bright orange dye from the pollen. "Nothing except insects."

Ivan helped Mia up onto the mesa and got to his feet. Severe light filled his purple eyes as he surveyed the crumbling city, his throat painful from the mass of blood vessels stopping him from breathing out. But…this is a place from one of my visions. Why are we here? Unsure, he turned away from the eerie city and looked back down over the cliff stairs for Mariner. Normally he tells us what we're going to before we set out. This must have something to do with what the Seekers are looking for. It's not just to sate curiosity about something. He peered even further over the edge; Mariner was nowhere to be seen.

"Is something wrong?" Mia asked, quietly concerned. "Did Mariner go back to the ship?"

"I don't think so. We should probably get a move on and try to work out what we're meant to do here, not just stand around admiring the scenery. If it's normal to admire this sort of scenery." He glanced back over the precipice, watching for the flash of turquoise-blue scaling the steep stairs. "Mariner?"

To his relief, there was a muffled reply. "Ivan, the five of you have to head towards the palace on the peak. There are probably monsters around in the palace, so be careful. Make sure you get to the lowest levels – somewhere around there is a room with picture frames in it. Find one that's got silver and gold inlay on it, and bring it back."

"What about you?" Ivan replied. It wasn't normal for Mariner to come if he wasn't going to help out. "Mariner?"

"I have something else to deal with in the city." The Mercury Adept paused for a moment in the rocky alcove a few metres below the Jupiter boy, considering how to phrase his warning. "Ivan. To reach the palace you'll have to pass by a spring of water. Whatever you do, don't drink from it. It'll only bring you pain." Another pause, this one shorter and more urgent than the first. "And try not to panic if something happens to the others once you're in the palace. Try to stick together. That frame's going to be important sooner or later."

A fistful of minutes slipped by, and when Mariner was certain the others had moved on he left his hiding-place to reach to top of the mesa. The sound of his footsteps, alone on the stone pathways, was unnervingly loud. He didn't like it, but there wasn't any reason to stop walking. Out here, no Mars had ever penetrated the fogbound Sea of Time and found the hidden city; if they had, all they would have found would be collapsing buildings, a full cemetery (he shuddered at the memory), and a spring of water that granted something considered precious despite the actual harsh truth behind it. The only enemy out here was trapped in the heavy picture frame slung across his back. But…he was still…frightened…

It took twenty minutes to reach the spring. Even from several feet away, he could feel it trying to draw him towards it in the hope he'd take the water again and restore what little was left of the city. He didn't want to. He'd spent too many years outside the fog-drenched sea, watching hundreds try to amend what effectively had been caused by him, and the prospect of staying alive for innumerable years to come now seemed sickening. Too many of his old companions had died from natural deaths, while he alone lived on, barely aging. It had been years since he'd felt his body physically altering from age; now, just when the effects of a childhood spent drinking from the spring were wearing off and he was more similar to normal people, he had to return…

With the covered frame propped up against the large stone basin, Mariner traced his fingers along a series of meandering carvings cut into the marble-work. His left index finger followed the shape of a little creature on the far right of the basin's edge, bitterness collecting like icemelt at the centre of his psynergetic core as he braced his right hand against the stone and murmured the name of a spell. When nothing happened, he sighed and repeated himself, louder. "Douse."

Water trickled from the sky, fuelled by his psynergy, and carefully filled the carved outline of the creature. Quickly, Mariner snatched his hands away from the stone and waited, yellow eyes never leaving the water-filled carving, while the summoning took place. Only one left. He's absorbed three since I sealed him eight years ago. At this rate he'll be able to go for the other elementals too. Thankful it wasn't honest remembering, Mariner nullified any pain his mind endured as he watched the water rise softly into the air, glimmering gently in the weak sunlight; it would only be a little time until the small animal was released.

Once the liquid hardened into its true form, the creature immediately hopped onto Mariner's shoulder so it was hidden by the fading blue and white folds of his headdress. A succession of quiet, rippling noises came from it, sounding questioning and a little afraid. From its spot beneath Mariner's left ear, the elemental spirit cocked its head to one side and listened for the sailor's answer.

"I'm sorry, Shade." He reached up and prised the spirit from his shoulder, holding it in the palm of his hand and watching it as evenly as he could. "I should have come back sooner to release you from the stone. You're the only one left from Mercury, now." He listened to the creature's bubbling reply, melancholy and alone. "No. I said I would keep her safe. She knows nothing of the feud at any rate, and I doubt she would want it to continue if she knew about it." The stream of rippling answers washed through his mind. "That's right. I won't let him get you. Besides which, you're the one who can keep him out – or in, as the case may be. He should have taken you long ago." Setting the elemental on the ground, he nodded at it solemnly as he picked up the picture frame and held it out over the basin. "Shade, set up your shield."

Flicking its purple-pink tail, almost in the shape of a lobster claw, the creature closed the blindingly yellow spheres that passed for its eyes and appeared to concentrate, the air around it rippling with aqua rings that shot towards the spring and surrounded it, a hazy turquoise mist quickly filling the gaps between the different wavy rings. Almost relaxing into its usage of power, the creature calmly reopened its eyes and watched as Mariner yanked the cloth cover from the gilt frame and dropping the picture into the water. The creature glimpsed the way in which the minute aquamarines on the hilt of Mariner's sword flashed angrily, blazing from the blade's memories of how it had been used through the generations.

Inside the impenetrable aquatic barrier, the Mercury Adept folded his arms and suspiciously stared at the surface of the spring water, his patience already beginning to wear thin. The man in the picture frame was always able to find new methods of infuriating him every time he escaped from the sealing. Last time he'd gone for what had been the most distressing option – attacking another member of his own Clan – but now he could only resort to…

"It appears that you never do change, Mariner. Ever the amateur."

damn. If anything I just get closer to losing my temper when he insults me.

"Still relying on that little thing? Really, I expected your power to have grown enough to face me alone by the time I was freed another time." Mariner could sense the malevolent smile directed at the back of his neck. "My my…then again, you're still hanging around with useless children, aren't you? Although, only two Venus is an improvement on that time. But really, the little Jupiters…and Mia? What do you think they can do?"

"More than you'd think." He glared over his shoulder at the apparition standing close to the watery curtain. "It's not like you ever tried to get along with others – if you couldn't use them, you deserted them."

The man laughed, making the water wall shudder with undisguisable apprehension. Mariner pretended to ignore how the earth beneath his feet trembled when the newcomer stepped towards him, hair and clothes swishing as he moved. "Still bitter? And here I was, thinking it was more your fault than anyone else's that this eternal place was destroyed." The man drummed his fingers against the stone basin, dipping his spare hand into the bright, transparent liquid and watching the water trickle out from between his fingers with a bored, uncaring look. "I expect too much of you. Not even a reaction –" He glanced down at his other hand, now encased in pale ice and unable to move from its position. "Ah…"

Mariner fished in an inside pocket and retrieved a rectangle of rough, grainy paper sealed with red wax, the sealant almost blossoming with clear-cut ruby anger as the letter was brandished towards the restrained man. "I've told you before. Get rid of the attitude before I'm forced to destroy the picture itself. I have no intention of fighting you here, not when this is an intentional release. I suggest you read the letter and leave to do as it says."

"Tsk. I see you still have that unusual temperament for one of the immortal people. You are aware that it may be your downfall?" Dropping his eyes to the letter, the man opened it with his one free hand and scanned through the Revealer's letter, one eyebrow rising in scorn as he glanced up at Mariner. "Dear me…some sort of errand boy, are you? Fine." Ice slid into water, the liquid spilling over the man's arm as he freed it from the ice block with a quick tug. "I'll go. But after my 'task' is done, the hunt will resume." Swiftly drawing himself to his full height, psynergetic mist surrounded him momentarily; once it was gone, so had he.

His anger dispersing slowly into the paving slabs, Mariner nodded another time in Shade's direction and watched, bubbles of refined annoyance and sharply unfocused memories rising upwards from his core, as the shield withdrew into the little creature. Oppressive silence ricocheted through the dead city as he let Shade hop back onto his shoulder and began to head back towards the edge of the mesa to wait for the others. Under his skin, he could feel the convection current for his emotions carrying his cooling temperament back towards the placid centre of his mind.

It was only a matter of time before the others returned, Mia pale and ghost-like. Mariner didn't even need to look at her to know she'd worked out what had happened. A little later, back on the ship, he made certain she heard him out. "I gave you my word that I wouldn't let him cause you any more trouble. I don't intend to let him."

Yet no matter how strong the words sounded, within he was more frightened of the man after his blood that she could ever be.